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Within hours of the news that the House vote on Trumpcare would be postponed, a source in Washington says that Trump told House Republicans in a closed meeting that either they support the bill as is on Friday or he would move on to other issues:

MULVANEY just told House Rs Trump is done negotiating on health bill, wants vote Friday and is moving on after this vote regardless

It is possible that Trump and his administration are only posturing and that even with a no vote Friday they will continue to work with congressional Republicans on a new bill. But politicians can only bluff so many times and still expect their words to mean anything. Trump was already embarrassed today when the passage he promised didn’t come to fruition.

But the split within the party likely stems from a deeper issue. It isn’t just a bad bill; Republicans really can’t agree on a bill that would make them all happy. Even if a new bill were drafted that pleased the nearly 30 Representatives that stand in the way now that would likely upset more moderate congressmen.

Add to that the disposition of Trump himself and you’ve got a recipe for absolute failure. Even though the president spent a good portion of the week insuring lawmakers that he’d be willing to negotiate on the bill he responded to today’s failure with a promise not to. Trump famously cannot handle failure and we’re finally starting to see what that looks like on a national scale.